Considering making changes to 2018 installed system...

I currently have:
Kenwood DNX995s
JL RD900/5
Doors: JL C2 650
Subs: Two JL 10w1v3-4 sealed box from Tech12

Considering:
Fronts: Focal PS 165F (Not sure if they fit the same adapters or not)
Reason: Looking for more midbass and cleaner overall sound

Subs: JL 10tw3-D8 (same subs used in the JL stealthbox)
The 10w1's sound pretty good, not as crisp of a bass note as I would like, seem more geared for SPL than SQ
Note, I an not sure how they would sound in the Tech12 box since it was built for the 10w1's and the 10tw3 have a different box volume requirement (15.57L) vs (16.3L)

One thing of note, I can feel a fair amount of air "whooshing" out of the speaker terminal connections in the Tech12 box, not sure if this is normal or not and if I should first try sealing that to see if SQ improved.

Also, I am not sure I have the system tuned correctly or not at the head unit. I don't quite have my head wrapped around how exactly the HU crossover frequencies should be set.

Anyhow, would love some feedback to help pass the time these days.
Thanks in advance!

 

You should definitely start with sealing up the terminal cup on the subwoofer box for the bass side of things. On the headunit you should have the subs set up with a low pass crossover around 80hz. For the front speakers, high pass filter at about 80 hz as well. If you do want to change the subs out the box size difference isn't a big deal and you can glue some wood pieces inside the box to take up air space and reduce the overall volume.

For your front stage, the JL speakers you have and the Focals you're looking at aren't too far apart from each other in overall quality and I wouldn't expect any big improvements necessarily. You'll definitely notice some differences in the sound, for certain on the high end of the spectrum, but I wouldn't expect night and day difference. Do you have any sound deadening done to your door? Using heavy duty speaker adapters or the basic Metra style?

Another thing to consider is dropping any rear speakers, adding a DSP and going active on the front stage. That would allow you to dial things in a lot better (EQ and time alignment primarily), as well as feed a lot more power to your midbass speakers. Unfortunately your current JL nor the Focals you mentioned would benefit much from this since neither pair is able to handle that much power being thrown at em. I would recommend taking a look at like the Morel Tempo Ultra 602 but regardless, I would start with some sound deadening in the doors and perhaps a more heavy duty speaker mounting adapter if you're using the thin Metra style.

 

I have all doors (inside and outside skins) wrapped with deadening. The Tech12 speaker adapters are a heavy mdf that I sprayed with bed liner and seal to door using butyl "tape". I use the HU internal DSP to sound stage for front left (can def tell a difference before I did that). Would I better off upgrading to the C5's for the fronts then (Looking for more midbass)? Currently the rears gain is turned down some too compared to the front. I only hear them as "fill" so to speak Thanks for your reply!

 

Quick note, I have the frequency set at 80 for front, rear and subs right now on the HU. Any idea what slope they should be set at?

 

Sounds like your doors are about as well treated as is possible so yeah, maybe time to upgrade speakers! I've never personally run C5's, but I have heard many great things about them. I would start there and if its still not giving you the sound you want, as a test run try disconnecting the rear speakers and bridging the amp to give the fronts more power. The Rd900/5 is no slouch in 4 channel mode, but more power is more power.

 

Play around with it and see what sounds best. Not very helpful I know, but tuning is so dependent on what equipment and how its all setup that its hard to say. All of my crossovers are 24 LR, but that might not be best in your situation. I like to jump back and forth a little and then leave it one setting for a day or two, and then try the other setting(s) and go that way.

 

aparker813....any comments about setting up EQ and time alignment on the DSP1? I just don't know where to start. When I play pink noise with my current setup it's very flat across all frequencies. I've messed with the time alignment using a tape measure but the result seemed like I could hear echoing instead of a coherent sound stage.

 

How are you set up/what equipment? Front and rear speakers or just front? Components up front - active or passive? Center channel speaker?

First thing to check regardless of answers to any of that above is that everything is hooked up where the DSR thinks it is in terms of front left, front right, sub, etc. I haven't messed with the DSR1 software but I'm fairly certain there should be a way to mute all the outputs, and then turn them on and off one by one checking to make sure that when you turn on front left in the DSR, sound comes from the front left.

Edit: and speaker polarity. Check that too if you haven't already.

 

JBL HU--->DSR1--->Kappa 5 going to Hertz K170's in a 4 doors, Kenwood eXcelon KFC-X2C's in the dash and a JBL Club WS1000 in a ported box Sub.

Every speaker output on amp goes to the correct speaker. Polarity is negative for all speakers except the K170 tweeters which are positive and according to James this is done intentionally.

 

Apologies on the delay responding, I guess I don't have my alerts on or I'm not seeing the emails. Anyway, I would try change polarity on the tweeters so all the speakers are moving the same direction first. Would also say maybe try turning off the dash speakers and get the components dialed in, then add the dash speakers back in the mix, perhaps at a lower volume level (should be able to control the output level for each speaker).

I'm gonna shoot you a message about a couple test tracks that might help you out too.